ED – FFF

Verdict: FFF’s OP kara sucked, but their ED was aight. As usual, Crunchyroll didn’t bother to compete, so FFF wins by default.

Typesetting

Crunchyroll typeset most everything FFF did, but FFF did a much better job at it (to, presumably, no one’s surprise).

Dialogue

By and large, FFF dominated Crunchy’s script with more natural, engaging dialogue.

Japanesiness

Crunchyroll: Honorifics, most common terms untranslated (“shinigami” instead of “reaper” for example)

FFF: No honorifics, no matter what

Kyoukai no Rinne is a heavily Japanese show, and many of the terms fall flat when localized. While I’m often ambivalent about the use of honorifics, I can say that this show’s script gets off pace without them. Myths, especially, shouldn’t be haphazardly localized. FFF had Hanako-san as “Hanako”, whereas Crunchyroll actually bothered to get the name right.

That being said, Crunchyroll’s decision to avoid localizing certain terms makes for a difficult-to-parse script.

I’m getting the impression CR had a TL Note for this in earlier episodes, cuz this shit makes no sense on a blind watch.

Crunchybros, you do know you can reference fansub scripts when making your own, right? Turnabout’s fair play — I’ll allow it here.

Machine Matched

While FFF gets that conversations in anime should at least attempt to mimic conversations in real life, Crunchyroll approaches the script on a line-by-line basis, making for a script stiffer than a rigor mortis boner.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the TL didn’t even watch the episode before wiping their hands of the translation.

Word Placement

CR and FFF often had similar lines only separated by CR’s inability to /human.

The phrasing hurts worse than I imagine a vomit-induced abortion would. Likely has a worse aftertaste too.

Points Missed

Watching CR’s release, you’d be forgiven for thinking the show doesn’t make sense.

In the above scene, Jumanji-kun just threw Holy Ash on a spirit and then ran out of the room. The students have no reason to ask what Jumanji is, but rather what the fuck he just did.

Sadly, it’s not terribly uncommon that you’ll have to question CR’s translation decisions while watching their version.

Stream of Consciousness

Some of the text in the CR release comes across as a first draft. Like, I wouldn’t be surprised if the TL had put aside a number of lines with the intent to fix them later, but ended up making some poor beverage decisions and woke up covered in vomit with a browser history of shame to match, realizing they only had minutes before their deadline, and hastily submitted all they had.

Yeah, I’m an optimist. The TL’s probably just straight special-ed.

tl;dr:

The biggest problems with FFF’s release are the inconsistent release times (sometimes they get out before Crunchyroll, sometimes after) and the lack of honorifics in a show that’s begging for them. Still, neither issue is enough for Crunchyroll to come out ahead of a far superior script.

Very much so. But sometimes people need to be reminded of the past. Just like how Lenin created Communism and Stalin expanded it, gg was the first to do crap like memes in subs and localizing the crap out of stuff, and Commie just expanded upon it.

Ignoring the baseless trolling considering you’ve never seen me before…

Yes, I do ask for money at times on Chihiro. You know why? Because I’m required to do it from our distro. Servers – even the cheap ones we use – don’t pay for themselves you know, and unlike what people like you believe, we’re not going to pay money we work hard for in real life, for ungrateful and ignorant leeches like you to enjoy your anime.
So why don’t you thank the grateful and courteous downloaders who support the community, or stays blissfully quiet, instead of being one of the leeches who contributes nothing but anger, frustration, and a complete lack of gratitude of what people spent hours if not days working on to give to you?

>Yes, I do ask for money at times on Chihiro. You know why? Because I’m required to do it from our distro.
Bullshit, we both know nobody watches Chihiro.

>who contributes nothing but anger, frustration, and a complete lack of gratitude of what people spent hours if not days working on to give to you?
But I pay my CR sub and I even donated money to actual fansubbing groups before, until I realized that for them transparency means posting a pic of a BD box every 3k they get.

What does that have to do with anything? I stated the distro guy tells me to do it, and you say “You’re wrong, nobody watches Chihiro”? If it’s an attempt at a jab at me it’s a pretty desperate one, especially considering I haven’t done anything in Chihiro for almost a year outside of being a figurehead.

>But I pay my CR sub and I even donated money to actual fansubbing groups before, until I realized that for them transparency means posting a pic of a BD box every 3k they get.

You want to provide evidence for this? If you’re asking for transparency to the extent of banking statements from fansub groups, perhaps you’d be willing to share your own statements.

Yeah, that’s exactly what I said I wanted, bank statements. That is in no way a bullshit strawman.
When you’re getting thousands in donation(not you obviously, your failure of a group doesn’t get that kind of money) and you get all bent out shape when people ask you for receipts it’s pretty obvious that money ain’t to here it was supposed to be going. These groups refuse to share even how much they spend on distro.

I mean look if like paying for your favorite fansubber’s friends plane tickets to cons that’s your choice I just think it’s bullshit.

Correct, CGi’s income is $0, and has been since fileserv shut down. Prior to that, we had I think 2 donation drives? And the prior to that, there was a 3-month period where our money was handled by a less-than-honest guy who pretended like we got no donations for months.
Shame you find us to be a failure when we have plenty of fans (and haters for that matter), but such is the end all be all.

Yeah Govna. I’m going to sacrifice money that could be used on food, rent, air conditioning, or other things I may need or want, so that I can pay for a server that I have never wanted in a group that I am stuck in because they won’t let me leave. Especially when there are people who want to give back to the group because they, unlike the people here, appreciate what the group does and want to help in any way they can.

How about no. If the distro shows me that we are $400 in debt and need funds, and all I have to do is lose face and grovel and look like a hypocrite, then that’s what I’ll do. My reputation is tarnished enough already, it’s not like it’ll hurt it any more.

When you’re dealing with legends and shit from other cultures, you wanna keep them as close to the source as possible. Take something like “Jörmungandr”. The equivalent scenario would be dropping the umlaut. You’re losing a lot of flavor and cultural context for no good reason.

For a monster-of-the-week show revolving around Japanese spirits that have to be sent back to a circle of reincarnation by Japanese death gods… Yeah, I’m gonna take issue when someone puts ketchup on everything and pretends it’s suddenly a burger.

Yeah, I’ll accept at least half of the blame for screwing up Hanako-san’s name. You’d think I’d know better seeing that this is the second show I’ve worked on in which Hanako-san appeared, especially since I got it right the first time…

Still, it’s nice to know that I didn’t completely fuck up my first show (officially, at least) as editor.

I can’t argue for CR for most of this, but I would like to say that one of the typesetting examples is much easier to read, since the words aren’t being styled onto the wall. However, it would be nice if the color of the font matched, at least.

Additionally, the two translations give different meaning to the scene. Either the writing on the wall is made to look like Hanako did it and is calling others names, or others are making fun of her by calling her names and making her seem like an idiot. I’m guessing FFF did it correctly this time.